Look closely. There in the back of the mail center where no one ever goes. Do you see stacks of tubs and trays filled with returned mail? If so, you're not alone. Nearly every shop I visit has some issue with returned mail. They hardly ever have well-defined procedures for handling it. And seldom is there anyone on the staff who is accountable for dealing with returned mail.
I suspect that the lack of a defined responsibility also contributes to those other stacks of mail you may find stashed under work tables and on top of supply cabinets - the metered envelopes from mailings that got pulled at the last minute. With no one specifically assigned and no immediate deadlines, dealing with both these problems is always done on a "when we get some spare time" basis.
Uh-huh. Just when was the last you had nothing better to do than to sort through those mail trays? It doesn't take long for the volume to build up so that dealing with the backlog is a multi-day project. Or even a multi-week task.
The procrastination is understandable. No one wants to do this job. Opening and sorting returned mail can be mind-numbing. And because of the personal nature of some of the documents, the task can't be outsourced. Returned mail is entirely uncontrolled. No one knows which pieces are in the piles or what information may be on the documents. Most of the time, the material is not even stored in a secure area.
Figuring out why the pieces were returned and tracking down the data source of the address block is tedious labor. Research is required to acquire accurate address information and correct the databases. As an added insult, it's likely that you'll correct the same address more than once.
Prevention is the Best Defense
The solution? Plan ahead for returned mail processing when you design the documents. Utilize ACS services from the Postal Service to receive address corrections electronically, place a barcode in the window that allows you to lookup the customer record without opening the envelope, or use mail piece ID numbers in the intelligent mail barcode to help with the lookup. If you are not participating in Full Service IMB, those piece ID numbers aren't required to be unique, so an account number is a perfectly valid entry.
A little advance planning can reduce the chances of generating excess returned mail. If the mailing list is rented or is thought to be out of date the rate of returns could be high. I can recall one customer who used "Return Service Requested" on such a mailing. They were buried in returned mail pieces and blew their budget in a big way. Mailers are charged First Class rates for all the Standard Mail pieces that are returned with this endorsement.
Make Sure It's Worthwhile
You should also consider the value of processing any returned mail as the pieces are being designed. In the case mentioned above the mailer rented a list for one-time use. Other than confirming the extremely poor quality of the mailing list, the returned mail pieces had absolutely no value! The ancillary endorsement shouldn't have been used at all.
You say that in your shop you do process the returned mail? Good for you! But are you sure that your efforts have an impact on future mailings? I know of one organization that got a weekly spreadsheet of returned mail data from their mail services provider. Unfortunately, no one at the client company knew what to do with the information. They paid for it, received it, and ignored it. Consequently, they also paid to print and mail to the same bad addresses month after month.
The next time you have an opportunity to participate in the design of a mail piece, give some thought to how you want to handle the returns. If you're already swamped with returned mail, give us a call and we'll find a way to determine the value of the backlog, develop a strategy for dealing with it, and implement ways to keep it from building up again in the future.
